On a drizzly Tuesday night GoodGym Croydon made another visit to Croydon Refugee Centre. A warm welcome was given to Brenda, Neelam, Atare, Dora and Michael who were volunteering at the Centre for the first time. They were joined by regular Croydon GoodGymers Liz, Roz, Nikki, Ingrid, Magda, Ian, Hannah, Lorna and Paul.

We met with Simon from the Centre who was impressed with the number of volunteers and put us to work getting the clothing donations sorted and on the rails. We finished by moving the rails from the hall into a (very) small storage room. After a bit of jiggling all the rails fitted and we said our goodbyes to Simon.

The evening ended with a drink at a local pub on the way home.

Ruro, Ros, Liz, Paul, Ian, Nikki and Ingrid braved a cold night for a community mission at Croydon Refugee Day Centre. We gathered at our usual meeting place and were delighted to see fellow GoodGymer Conroy and have a quick catch up.

After making our way to the centre, we were met by Simon who gave us our tasks for the evening. These included ensuring clothes were in the correct size order on the rails, were labelled and removing any summer clothing. The session ended with us moving all the rails into the storage room. This is more of a squeeze with each visit, we're not sure whether there are more rails or the room is getting smaller!

After saying our goodbyes to Simon, we made our way back to the meeting spot.

Liz, Ros and Ingrid joined members of the East Croydon Community Organisation (ECCO) on a thankfully rain free night to help tidy up the flower beds along the Boulevard.

Tasks included sweeping leaves, litter picking, weeding and planting flowers in a memorial garden.

At the end of the evening we had collected 13 bags of litter and leaves for the council to collect.

We said our goodbyes, wished each other a Merry Christmas and looked forward to many more successful missions in the New Year.

Regular GoodGym members Nikki, Ros and Ingrid welcomed Ruro, who joined them for her first session at the Croydon Refugee Day Centre.

Centre volunteer Simon welcomed us and gave us the tasks for the evening. These included sorting and bagging up summer clothing for next year. Rehanging clothing and our favourite final job of moving the hanging rails from the hall into a small storage room.

We completed all tasks successfully and Simon thanked us with a Kit-Kat. We look forward to visiting again in the new year.